


as stars once a year brush the earth

by oflionsandwolves



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Case Fic, Daemon Separation, Daemon Touching, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 01:18:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14706390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oflionsandwolves/pseuds/oflionsandwolves
Summary: "Our new client is a rabbit."A daemon AU written for the DGHDA Beginner Bang





	as stars once a year brush the earth

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the DGHDA Beginner Bang!  
> Art is by the amazing [Eva](https://www.instagram.com/evas.arts/) whose other work can be found here:

 “So our new client is a rabbit.”

Farah closed the door behind her and Kvothe slowly, giving Todd the Look. The one that suggested she severely regretted every decision that had led her to this point.

“Not a _real_ rabbit,” Dirk protested. “A _daemon_. Her name is Penelope, and she’s our new client!”

Farah walked in, looking much less wary and more concerned.

Sure enough, a rabbit daemon was sitting on the floor next to Arianne, who was trembling with barely concealed excitement.

“Are you a witch?” Kvothe asked, laying down next to Calliope, who was hanging back, trying to give the daemon some space.

“No,” the rabbit thumped her leg in agitation, “they made us like this.”

“Who?” Todd asked, leaning forward.

“I don’t know exactly, but they took us, and they did something that caused this.”

“Can you tell us exactly what happened?”

The rabbit shifted to a more comfortable position. “We were out playing. Just a normal day, and then the people grabbed us and put us in a van. They touched me, and it was horrible.”

Arianne made a comforting noise, and pressed closer.

“They took us to some building. It was outside of the city, but I’m not sure where exactly. We were in there for a week before anything happened. I don’t know if they were observing us or what. There were other kids, too. We had just turned 12, so we were the oldest in the group. I think the youngest was probably five or six.”

The rabbit fell silent for a moment, and Dirk, Farah, and Todd all shared concerned glances. People kidnapping children couldn’t be good, and the fact that there hadn’t been any news reports or amber alerts was even worse.

Penelope continued, “After a while, they took me and Travis into a different place in the building, and they made us go on opposite sides of the room. And then they did something. I don’t know what, but it hurt really bad.” Her voice hitched.

Dirk stood up abruptly and took several steps before stopping, looking lost. Todd crossed the room and placed a hand on Dirk’s arm; he knew that Dirk was reliving the Blackwing experiments that had Separated him from Arianne.

“C’mon Dirk, you’re safe now,” Todd pitched his voice low, hoping the little rabbit wouldn’t notice. It wouldn’t help her to see Dirk on the verge of panic.

Dirk nodded, leaning into Todd’s touch. “Go on, please. What happened next?”

“Well, we didn’t really know what they had done at first. They put us in a different place than the other kids, and at first, it hurt too much to even start figuring stuff out. After a while, though, we realized we were each feeling our own pain but not each other’s, at least not as much as before.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “Anyway, like I said, we didn’t know what they had done, but we knew we needed to get out. Next time they opened the door, we just ran for it. I thought Trav was with me because it didn’t hurt, you know, like it normally does when you go too far apart. It wasn’t til I was outside that I realized he wasn’t with me. They must’ve grabbed him, but I was too fast. I got out and realized that whatever they did, it made us like the witches; we can be apart now. But I hate it! I just want Trav back!” She broke down.

Kvothe padded over and laid down, cuddling the rabbit close to offer comfort.

“We’ll help you,” Farah assured the daemon. “We’ll get him back for you. I promise.”

Todd nodded, before pulling Dirk to the other side of the room.

“Are you okay? Do you think it was Blackwing?”

Dirk attempted a smile, but it was half-hearted at best. “I’m _fine,_ Todd. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Todd just gave him a skeptical look.

“Alright fine, I’m not, but we need to focus,” Dirk relented. “I don’t know if it was Blackwing, but it must be someone associated with them at least. How many people can be doing the same type of very illegal experiments?”

“Fair enough. At least that gives us somewhere to start.”

 

* * *

 

Later that night, when Dirk had left to get dinner (because according to Dirk, “You two never get anything good,” which meant that they were almost certainly going to be eating greasy pizza with whatever weird combination of toppings struck Dirk’s fancy), Farah and Todd headed into the small side room to talk without Arianne and Penelope overhearing.

The two daemons were sitting by the window speaking in low voices. Arianne had elected to stay behind to help the younger daemon practice tracking through her bond. Although it could be tricky because of the partial severing that the experiment caused, Arianne had plenty of practice from Blackwing’s second kidnapping attempt when Dirk had been captured and she had escaped.

Farah closed the door behind them. “Do you think Dirk will be able to handle this?”

Todd shrugged. “Do we really have a choice? We’re the best bet to rescue those kids. And there’s no way Dirk will give this one up.”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

Todd shrugged again. “He won’t talk about what happened when he was back there. He’s been acting like it was nothing. You know how he is; it’s impossible to get him to talk about something when he doesn’t want to.”

“Arianne thinks he’s doing better than he did the first time he got out,” Calliope offered, “but he won’t talk to her about it either, so who knows if that’s true.”

Farah frowned. “You think he would lie to his own daemon?”

Calliope fluffed her feathers, shuffling closer to Todd. “They have an odd relationship. I’m not sure if it’s because of what Blackwing did or if it’s just _them,_ but yes. I think he would lie to her if he thought it was best.”

“Great. That’s just great.” Farah buried her fingers in Kvothe’s fur. Todd recognized the gesture - one she made when her anxiety was getting overwhelming. “Todd, you’ll have to keep a close eye on him, make sure this isn’t putting too much pressure on him.”

“Of course,” Todd agreed. “What else is an assistant for?”

 

* * *

 

Penelope had said that there were at least half a dozen kids who had been with them, but no one had reported children missing during that time period, which meant there were no leads.

“How does this even happen?” Farah grumbled, staring at mostly empty board they were using to track information. “How do they take this many kids without anyone noticing? We aren’t in the days of the Oblation Board; they can’t just _kidnap_ people without anyone noticing.”

Dirk looked up from his phone. He had been texting Amanda to see if she and the Rowdy 3 had heard of any stirrings from Blackwing. He’d also tried to reach Bart without any luck. “They’ve done it before, assuming this is Blackwing.”

“Still, there should be something,” Farah argued.

Dirk shrugged. “Who knows what sinister things they might have done.”

The door banged open, and Todd stormed in. Calliope launched herself off of Todd’s shoulder to land on Dirk’s desk.

“Whatever happened, Travis’s parents don’t seem to think anything is wrong. I couldn’t get them to say where he was, but they acted remarkably calm. Like, it was kind of freaky, actually. They also didn’t seem to think it was weird that I was asking, even though I am a total stranger, so I would guess that Blackwing gave them something.”

Farah rolled her eyes, but Dirk nodded enthusiastically. “Of course they would. If Blackwing drugged them somehow, that explains why none of the parents are looking for their kids.”

Farah looked like she was going to protest, so Dirk continued, “ _Anyway,_ that isn’t important right now. What is important,” he help up his phone with a grin, “is that Amanda says they saw some suspiciously military looking vehicles on the outskirts of the city. We have a lead!” He bounced to his feet with a grin, Arianne darting around his feet, dooking in excitement.

“Yes! Let’s go!” Todd was also grinning, Dirk’s good mood as infectious as ever.

“Hold on.” Farah stepped between them and the door, as if she expected them to run out without any thought (which really wasn’t that unlikely). “If this is Blackwing, we need to prepare - we can’t just go in without any kind of plan.”

Todd and Dirk both drooped, excitement fading at the thought of _planning_.

“Fine.” Dirk heaved a huge sigh. “What do we need to do?”

“Can you see if the Rowdies will come as backup? I don’t want to go into there on our own. We’ll send Arianne in to scout - she can transform into something small enough not be noticed; that way, we’ll know exactly where the kids are being kept.”

Penelope glanced at Arianne wide-eyed. “You can still change? Even though you’re a grown up?”

Arianne perked up, now that she knew that Todd and Farah at least didn’t think she was weird for this, she loved showing off. “It was one of the side effect from when Blackwing took us.”

She flicked through forms - a maned wolf and a raven to mimic Kvothe and Calliope, a lioness, a rabbit - before returning to the ferret form she preferred.

“That is so cool!” Penelope breathed. She shifted into a ferret to match Arianne. “We aren’t old enough to Settle yet, but I wonder if we’ll keep being able to change, too.”

Everyone else was quiet for a moment, letting Arianne and Penelope play. The younger daemon had been quiet and subdued for the last few days, the stress of being away from Travis and the frustration of not being able to find him weighing on her.

Once they settled down again, Farah went back to planning.

“Should we call the police?” Penelope asked.

Farah frowned. “I wish I could say that they would help, but we don’t know who Blackwing has paid off, or if they are still operating as part of the CIA. No, it’s better if we do this ourselves.”

“If only Sherlock and Tina were here,” Dirk sighed. “They would definitely help us.”

 

* * *

 

 

They pulled into the spot they had agreed to meet with the Rowdy Three. Dirk exchanged a few quiet words with Arianne before she shifted into the form of a sparrow. Farah and Todd watched as she flew to the building that Blacking was using, an old abandoned-looking factory. It was decrepit and out of the way enough to not draw attention, but that also meant that it had plenty of broken windows that allowed Arianne to dart inside.

Todd didn’t like sending her in there alone, even though - if all went according to plan - she would stay in forms small enough not be noticed and would be able to get in, find the kids, and get out without attracting attention. With them, things never went according to plan, though.

Only a few minutes later, a shape emerged from the window, shifted into a hawk, and flew towards them as quickly as her wings could take her.

“Alarms!” Arianne shrieked as soon as she was close enough. “There are alarms going off! Something is happening; we should go now.”

Kvothe growled in frustration as everyone looked to Farah.

“Alright. Looks like we are going in. Everyone ready?” She looked around at the group. Dirk and Todd looked nervous but determined, and the Rowdies were all grinning and hefting weapons; they had never been into any plan that involved getting the kids out quietly.

 

* * *

 

At the end of a hallway, they spotted a disheveled wolverine daemon carrying the limp body of a Scottish wildcat. Telemachus stopped when he heard them, carefully placed Ken’s daemon on the floor, and looked back at the group. There was blood around the daemon’s muzzle as he bared his fangs in what could have been described as a smile but could just as easily have been a threat.

“Is, is Bart here?” Dirk called.

Telemachus didn’t respond, just picked up the unconscious daemon and slipped out of sight.

The only noise was the continued blaring of the alarms.

“Come on,” Farah urged, “we still need to find Travis and the others.”

“I never thought I would be happy to know Bart was around,” Todd muttered. “I guess we know what set off the alarm.”

“That was Ken’s daemon,” Dirk said. “I guess he must have kept his job at Blackwing? Hopefully that means there isn’t anyone in charge here, which will certainly make thing easier.”

 

* * *

 

The first thing they found was a room containing several glass cases of severed daemons. They were ghostly and insubstantial. Todd had opened the door and blocked Dirk from getting in.

“Amanda, can you let them out? We’ll keep going and see if we can find the kids.”

Amanda nodded, jaw tight. Todd shot her a grateful look before ushering Dirk and Farah down the hall.

 

* * *

 

Amanda stepped into the room, noting with approval that Gripps was keeping Vogel out of the room. She wasn’t sure what experiments Blackwing had done to the Rowdies’ daemons, but this room was like something out of a nightmare. The caged daemons pressed forward, letting out faint cries of distress. There were names and notes on each door, which she glanced at briefly before going to work. She knew how to pick locks, and although she didn’t have the wand with her, she knew enough magic that she was able to open the cages quickly. The daemons clustered around her, desperate for physical contact and warmth.

“These aint like us and Icarus,” Martin mused, watching as Amanda’s Ramiel and his own daemon, Corentine pressed in amongst the children’s daemons so that they could get the contact they craved without breaking the taboo against touching someone else’s daemon.

“What do you mean?”

“Something went wrong,” Corentine responded instead. “Our bonds were stretched during the experiments. Like the old stories of witches. Their bonds were severed. I don’t know if Blackwing meant to do this, but it is so much more cruel than what they did to us.”

Amanda grimaced. “Well, we can’t fix that. We _can_ reunite them. And we can make sure this place burns when we leave.”

Martin grinned. “That’s my girl. Let’s go, Drummer.” He led the way out of the room. “Move out boys. We have kids to find, and then we have a building to destroy!”

Vogel and Gripps whooped in excitement, and the Rowdies’ dingos surrounded the children’s daemons.

 

* * *

 

A few minutes after the group split up, Penelope shifted, shooting into the air in the form of a sparrow.

“I can sense him!” she chirped, making quick loops around the group and then taking off down the hallway.

“Wait!” Todd called, all three breaking into a sprint to keep up with the daemon. Calliope croaked a curse as she flew after Penelope, moving as far ahead as their bond would allow to try to pace the younger daemon in case she ran into trouble.

Luckily, the only Blackwing agents they saw as they raced through the corridors were those who had already been taken out by Bart. It only took a few minutes longer before they came to a hallway lined with cells.

“Found the keys,” Farah announced, pulling them off the slumped body of one of the guards with a grimace.

Penelope chirped with excitement, fluttering to land in front of one of the doors. “This one first!”

Farah nodded, pressing the keys into the lock until she found one that fit. As soon as the door was unlocked, Penelope burst through the door, shifting into a golden retriever and throwing herself onto Travis. Farah and the others stepped back to give them privacy in their reunion, Travis sobbing into Penelope’s fur and the daemon pressing as close to her boy as she could.

They were quiet as they unlocked the rest of the doors. The children in those cells drifted out warily, looking shellshocked and so alone without their daemons.

Dirk sucked in a pained breath, and Todd, without thinking, reached out to grab his hand to offer reassurance. Dirk flashed him a grateful smile, squeezing his hand as Arianne scrambled up to sit on his shoulder.

A loud series of crashes in the hallway startled them all. Farah stepped in front of the children, cocking her gun, but she relaxed a moment later when the sound resolved itself into the Rowdy Three. Amanda whooped when she saw the rescued kids, moving out of the way so that the daemons could return to their people.

Whatever experiments Blackwing had done, whatever their goal, it did not dampen the joy the children and daemons felt upon being reunited. Dirk leaned into Todd with a relieved sigh as a few of the daemons who had been so insubstantial and subdued a few moments before began shifting through forms in excitement.

“We should move out in case reinforcements are coming. We don’t know if they managed to send a message when Bart attacked,” Farah said. She glanced at the Rowdy Three. “You do your thing, and we’ll get the kids home.”

The Rowdies grinned and hefted their weapons before turning to head deeper into the facility.

Farah turned to the children and began ushering them out of the building. Todd kept an eye on Dirk as they left. The other man was unusually subdued; this case had obviously hit too close to home for him, but he brightened considerably as they left the building behind.

As they drove away to bring the kids home, Todd glanced back to see smoke rising from the warehouse - the Rowdies’ work - and smiled in satisfaction at knowing that another Blackwing facility was gone.

 

* * *

 

Farah, Dirk, and Todd hung back as Travis and Penelope approached their house, Penny back in the form of a rabbit, clutched in Travis’s arms. They hadn’t stopped touching since they had been reunited.

Todd shifted uneasily. There had been something wrong with the parents when he had come before, and they hadn’t managed to figure out what it was - no one had been able to make sense of the half destroyed paperwork that had been left behind when the surviving Blackwing agents fled.

As Travis approached, the door was thrown open, and his parents rushed out. Penelope jumped out of his arms just in time to avoid being crushed in the hug and was immediately greeted with enthusiasm by their parents’ terrier and cat daemons.

“Well, I guess whatever Blackwing did wore off,” Dirk observed with a grin. “Another case successfully solved!”

Todd and Farah grinned back, elated with their victory. They had saved the children, and Blackwing was on the run, unlikely to recover any time soon between the damage done by Bart and the Rowdies.

 

* * *

 

“Let’s never do anything that intense again,” Todd said, flopping onto the couch with a sigh. Calliope hopped up to sit on his lap, and he absent-mindedly ran his fingers through her feathers.

“First you think our cases aren’t _legitimate_ enough-”

“Our last case involved _ghost cashews,”_ Todd interrupted.

“Spectral! Spectral cashews!”

“Oh, sorry, how could I fail to make that distinction,” Todd scoffed.

Before either of them could continue the argument, Arianne leapt off the table onto Todd’s lap. Todd raised his hand instinctively to steady her and then froze, realizing the breach he had just committed.

“Shit, sorry.” He tried to pull his hand away, but Arianne grabbed him with her paws and leaned into his touch.

Todd looked up in alarm. Dirk was just staring at him and Arianne in shock.

“What,” Todd didn’t know what he was going to ask, but it didn’t matter because Calliope had shuffled over to Dirk and rubbed her head against Dirk’s bare arm. Todd sucked in a breath at the overwhelming sensation: a rush of warmth and pleasure like nothing he had ever felt before. He looked up, meeting Dirk’s eyes, knowing he was feeling the same thing.

“Well,” Dirk started, obviously aiming for nonchalant but missing by a mile. Calliope chucked at him, tugging at his sleeve.

“Have you ever?” Todd whispered, as though speaking too loudly would disrupt whatever was happening between them.

Dirk shook his head, eyes wide. “Can I?”

Todd nodded, unable to find the words. Dirk ran his fingers over Calliope’s feathers reverently. Todd closed his eyes, unable to handle the powerful emotions coursing through him - trust, warmth, safety, love - at that last one, he froze, the hand stroking Arianne’s fur laying still.

“Oh,” Dirk murmured, meeting Todd’s eyes at last, obviously having come to the same realization.

They were both still for a long moment, knowing that something had changed but neither quite sure how to go forward.

Then, with a striking feeling of clarity - of certainly - that Todd wasn’t sure he had ever felt before, he reached out, across what felt like an eternity of space and took Dirk’s hand. Dirk’s face broke into a grin as he interlocked his fingers with Todd’s and allowed Todd to pull him onto the couch. Todd reached out, cupping Dirk’s cheek. He leaned into the touch the same way Arianne had earlier, letting out a contented sigh.

Neither could stop smiling as Todd pulled Dirk in for a kiss that felt like coming home.

**Author's Note:**

> Daemons:  
> Todd: [Calliope](https://qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/raven-bird.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1600)  
> Dirk: [Arianne](https://d2kwjcq8j5htsz.cloudfront.net/2015/09/28153733/ferret-popping-out-ThinkstockPhotos-584207536.jpg)  
> Farah: [Kvothe](https://nationalzoo.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/480x240_scale_and_crop/public/animals/manedwolf-005.jpg?itok=QI5NW5EV)  
> Amanda: [Ramiel](http://www.concrete-online.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/33295981294_46e7f6ac00_b.jpg)  
> The Rowdies [Corentine, Elysia, Kepi, and Desdemona](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/4_Dingos.jpg)  
> Bart [Telemachus ](https://img-aws.ehowcdn.com/877x500p/photos.demandstudios.com/getty/article/235/70/178729018.jpg)  
> Ken [Vritra ](https://www.cats.org.uk/uploads/images/pages/wildcat110.jpg)


End file.
